Thursday, November 5, 2009

Making Fondant.

I know you all are just hanging on my every word, on the edge of your seat in anticipation of learning to make fondant, right? So let's get right to it. I could have saved a lot of time, and made a lot less mess, by buying pre-made fondant, but really, what fun is that? Not to mention that it's more expensive, and not really very tasty. So I'm making my own fondant. I found this easy, inexpensive, and actually quite tasty, recipe made from marshmallows. We're going to be making two batches: one white and one black. See on the bottom tier of the cake I'm going to do a chess board consisting of covering the whole tier in white, than adding the black squares. I prefer to work with fondant over icing. It's like playing with play-doh, and you can eat what's left over.

The ingredients: A 1 lb. bag of mini marshmallows, a 2 lb. bag of confectioner's sugar, and some shortening to keep things from getting too sticky. And trust me, it gets sticky!

Melt your marshmallows in the microwave at 30-second intervals, stirring between each, until they are completely melted and smooth.

Grease your work surface with the shortening. Grease it well! Grease your hands well, too. If you don't, you will have marshmallow sticking like crazy.

Pour about 1/4 of the bag of sugar into the bowl of melted marshmallow and stir just a little, then dump it all out onto your greased work surface. This is where it gets really messy. But admit it, doesn't the child in all of us like to make a mess every now and then?

Knead the mix like you would bread dough. Add sugar as you go, kneading it well in between additions. Keep at it! It takes a few minutes to get stickiness out of it. Re-grease your hands and the table as needed. You probably will not use all of the sugar. I made two batches and didn't even use the whole 2 lb. bag. The picture above is how it should look when you're finished!

We're storing it for the night because I'm not making the cake to put it on until the next night (tonight actually). So to store it, coat the ball with shortening, wrap it with plastic wrap, and put it in a freezer bag, making sure you get as much air out as possible.

For the black fondant we're making it chocolate. I reasoned it's easier to make brown fondant turn black, than it would be to make white fondant turn black. So I added 1 oz. of melted chocolate to the original recipe. I used unsweetened chocolate, but the recipe doesn't really specify. I figured between the marshmallows and the sugar it's enough to send you into a diabetic coma, so unsweetened chocolate would be wise.

Above is what the chocolate fondant looks like during the kneading process. Since we just went through the initial steps, I skipped taking pictures of that. I also added two tablespoons of cocoa powder with the confectioner's sugar.

Now to color it black. Coloring fondant is not easy anyway, especially dark colors; coloring it black is a nightmare. A friend of mine who is a chef (Hi, Jennie!) told me that if I was having trouble getting it dark enough I should add purple. And really, she was right.

Here's the finished black. It started drying out a lot while I was trying to knead the color into it. But I think I got it a pretty good shade. And I got it back into a workable consistency.

Sealed up and waiting to be used!

The mess I left on our kitchen table. Not pictured: the confectioner's sugar all over the floor.

And finally, my hand after coloring the black fondant. Thankfully it came off, though it did take four or five hand-washings to get it off. Tomorrow's entry will include baking the cake and covering it with the fondant. Stay tuned!

Documenting a beginner's trials and experimentations in cake decorating. Keep in mind I am not a professional! I have had no training whatsoever. All of this is just trial and error. If any of you decorate cakes and can offer any advice or tips, please do so! Any help is always appreciated. Now, follow me as I learn!